The Girl With The Unseeing Eyes
by NewBloom
Summary: Xia He Zhao, or Eve Patel, was tortured by a demon for knowledge which she possessed, because of this, she lost use of her eyes. Both to protect her and the chinese institue, she was shipped to London, where the one person who may understand her,Jem, is


Yes… I am writing a fanfiction about a book, not a manga, craziness isn't it? Anyways, I got around to buying Clockwork Angel and reading it a couple days ago, and I am now obsessed with Jem. Will, (like Jace) pisses me off, so he will not be the good guy in this story. This will be set after he clockwork angel but before the clockwork prince.

Enjoy!

She opened the door with no problem and walked in like she owned the place. She propped her hands on her hips and tilted her head curiously. "Why was no one at the door to greet me? I know for a fact that you knew I was coming" She was absolutely beautiful, she had the same almond shaped eyes that I had, although her skin was almost as pale as my own.

She had long black, or at the least very dark brown, hair which was in a plait that went all the way down her back. She wore a Chinese style dress the colour of flames, red in some places but seamlessly blending with oranges and yellows as well. I would have considered her perfectly normal for a shadow hunter if it weren't for the fact that not once while she spoke or while she walked had she opened her eyes.

"Are you the uh… Nephilim who was supposed to be coming from China?" Tessa struggled with the words she wanted to describe the young woman in front of her.

If someone could physically glare without opening her eyes, then this young lady certainly managed it. "Depends on who's asking" Her response was curt and certainly not happy, and it reminded me very strongly of my first conversations with Will. "I suppose, for all intents and purposes though, that I am the 'Nephilim' whom you are expecting"

She had not given her name and I remembered a lesson in etiquette from my mother '_If you wish to learn someone's name Jian, then you must give them your name first_' I stood and walked over before offering my hand. "Jian Carstairs, here in London I go by James, you are welcome to call me either Jian or Jem, whichever you prefer, might I ask what your name is?"

Still without opening her eyes she searched blindly for my hand; finally she found it and shook it powerfully. "Xia He Zhao" She responded smiling "or if you would prefer, my English name is Eve Patel"

Tessa bit her lip before finally blurting the question that was on all of our lips. "Why do you keep your eyes closed Eve? And why are you here?"

Xia He winced. A flush of anger coloured her cheeks nonetheless "Why are you so rude? Why is Jian so weak? We all have our reasons"

I rarely saw Tessa take injury from others words but when she winced it was clear that she had not realized how discourteous she had been. "I suspect I've been spending too much time around Will" We all laughed, except Xia He who didn't know who Will was, and of course Will didn't laugh either.

"Because my mother killed a certain demon's offspring, he took me and my parents as prisoners and to torture them he decided to poison their offspring if front of their eyes, I was injected with demon poison and my body became addicted to it so I am dying a slow and painful death because I have to have more poison at regular intervals or my body will start breaking down very rapidly" She had an expression of mild shock on her face and her mouth formed an 'oh'.

"My eyes were ruined by repeated doses of demon blood to them" She said quickly, as though trying to keep herself from having to remember it.

"Can we see?" Henry said curiously, no doubt wanting to know how exactly her eyes had been affected by the demon blood.

She once again winced but sighed as though she had expected this. "Please sit" She said to me, I did as Xia He asked "Also, those unaccustomed to unpleasant sights I would strongly suggest you turn away"

Sophie turned away. Xia He waited a minute or so to give everyone more time to make the decision to watch or not. Finally she fluttered her eyelids open. Set inside, where her eyeballs should have been, was what appeared to be two scorched, bloody and pus filled orbs, which I had no trouble believing were the remainder of her eyes after being exposed to demon blood. Tessa screamed and Charlotte, who hadn't had the sense to listen to Xia He's warning to sit down, fell backwards with a face as white as a sheet. Even Henry stared at Xia He with a mixture of terror and tepid curiosity. Will, who had been silently standing in the corner, braced himself against the shelves behind him. I just watched in mild horror.

Finally Will steadied himself, and spoke "You're disgusting" Xia He paled and stepped back as though she had been slapped, without another word she snapped her eyes shut, even as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

She opened her mouth as though she was going to apologize but in the end she turned and fled the room. I recovered from the shock the most quickly and stood up and smacked Will on the back of the head "Idiot, why do you feel the need to piss off every single person who comes into the institute?"

"It's a talent, I admit" I ignored him.

"So who's going after her?" Henry finally asked breaking the silence.

Eve's POV

I trailed my fingers along the wall so as to not get lost and run into something. The bumpy texture of the wall was familiar and I could identify certain deformities from my trip in to the library so I figured I could find my way out again easily.

That is until a slender cold hand wrapped around my wrist while its partner caught me on the waist. "Trying to run away now are we?" A deep but soft voice spoke quietly into my ear. I could feel his breath on my neck and it sent shivers down my spine.

"Jian" I said softly "No, not trying to run away, succeeding, or at least I was until you showed up" He laughed, and it was a proper laugh, one that shook his whole body, including the arms that he now had wrapped around me to keep me from running away.

"Good to know, I don't suppose you would reconsider staying here with us? I know Will is an asshole but that doesn't mean the rest of us are" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"I don't know, do you suppose the rest of you could reconsider being horrified of me because I have disgusting eyes?" His grip tightened.

"I was never horrified of you, just of what had been done to you" He whispered in my ear with a voice that sent tingles down my nerves. He breathed in sharply as he realized how close we were, he stepped back and let his arms slip off me before taking my hand and placing it on his arm like a gentleman would.

"Shall we return to the library to be with the others?" His voice seemed insistent that we rejoin the company of others, so I listened and followed him back.


End file.
